Realizations
by KatsyKat
Summary: Warning: SPOILERS FOR MANGA. What Sakura realizes about her feelings for her blondehaired teammate with a little unintended help from Yamato.


**WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MANGA – PAST ANIME TIMELINE

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**Sakura and her new commander, Yamato, were kneeling over Naruto's unconscious body after Sakura healed the severe chakra burns that covered Naruto's skin after he was possessed by the Kyubbi in his battle with Orochimaru. 

A helpless despair hit Sakura's chest after her request to learn the suppression jutsu Yamato used on Naruto, was denied. Never mind the fact he couldn't teach her the jutsu because she wasn't compatible at a cellular level. To her it was another aspect of her life that showed her how much she was lacking.

"Same as always." She tried to smile and force back her tears, "I can only do the dumbest of things for Naruto."

Yamato searched her face – so determined to overcome some imaginary weakness she felt she had, despite the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes and began running down her face in rivulets. Finally, relating somewhat to her feelings of inadequacy (as, being the product of one of Orochimaru's experiments, he'd lived with comparing himself to the original Hokage) he tried to offer her some condolence.

"It's not what you **do **for Naruto that's important. It's how strongly you **feel **about him that counts."

At Sakura's look of shocked surprise, Yamato sighed; women were so complicated. And sometimes they were as blind as they accused men of being.

"Sakura, I can tell just by looking at you... The truth is you..." he dropped off as they heard Naruto's weak voice. Sakura's despair at missing the rest of her commander's thought was barely overshadowed by her relief at hearing her teammate's tired but very much alive voice.

Ascertaining the yellow-haired nymph would be fine and treating him to a light punch to straighten out his more creative name-conjuring, the down-to-three-man team took to the trees to tail their traitorous teammate, Sai, and Oorchimaru to their hideout.

As Yamato communicated with his bushin via radio, Sakura tried to ignore the inflaming of her glands, telling her that she was fighting an infection. She knew it was most likely from her injury from the nine-tails because she hadn't been showing any previous signs of becoming sick. And if that was the case, she shouldn't be feeling the effects of an infection this soon after her injury; unless, of course, it was poison-based.

Still it was odd considering Kabuto had kindly healed the wound almost immediately after she received it. She would never admit, but she was glad he did it. She was unable to focus her chakra at that point because of the pain of her injury. And she was sure he intentionally used a technique she was familiar with so she could know he meant her no harm. She had no doubt that all she had to do was call out and Yamato would have used his jutsu to cut off Kabuto's air supply.

Still, his healing jutsu should have cleared out any infection-causing elements as it sealed. Also, infections were most common when a wound was left untreated for a decent amount of time.

Yet, with an undeniable fierceness, her throat was beginning to ache along with the headache she'd woken to when she reclaimed consciousness at the bridge.

She had developed dry mouth somewhere along their chase, and the roof of her mouth felt sticky. She thought to grab for her water but as she reached for her canteen her arm, still bearing small evidence of claw marks, burned with sudden fierceness as the throbbing intensified. The feverish feel to the skin of her arm left no question as to the cause of her symptoms.

She shook her head trying to clear it. She had to function normally. Hadn't they just discussed the urgency of hurrying when Naruto collapsed, again, before they set off? They had no time to waste. And if Naruto wasn't giving up with everything he'd just been through – that she would be no different!

They were so close to finding Sasuke! After almost three long years she would finally be able to make him see reason and return.

All they had to do was chase one of the most dangerous S-Class criminals (the one even the 3rd Hokage couldn't defeat) without him noticing. Infiltrate his base, and kidnap or convince their wayward teammate to return to a village he'd left years previous in order to obtain a greater power with which to continue on his path of vengeance against his only living family member.

Sakura smiled cynically. Sounds like a chinch.

Given the odds stacked hopelessly against them, as usual; she had no time to complain about a little pain in her arm. They needed to move as quickly as they could. She swung on another branch, pleased with her ability to ignore her discomforts and still keep up with Naruto and Yamato.

Or was she? She wondered as her feet landed a little unsteadily on a branch before launching solidly to the next.

Were her palms sweaty? It was hard to tell because her gloves absorbed most of it.

Her face, however, was uncovered and flushed; burning from more than their exertion through the forest.

She marveled at the swiftness of her symptoms and wondered, not for the first time, just how dangerously potent the Kyyubi's chakra was, and how much it hurt Naruto in order to...

Before she could finish the thought, her hand slipped from the branch she was swinging around, and an incredibly intense stinging sensation shot down her arm and momentarily paralyzed her.

Naruto calling her name, jarred her back from the white hot pain. By then she realized she was very close and still spiraling rapidly toward the ground. Panic seized her as she realized she had nothing in reach to stop her fall.

To both her and Naruto's relief Yamato caught her, cushioning what would have been an awful landing. Sakura thanked Yamato shakily. She tried to ignore his eerie gaze that seemed to take in more about her than she wanted. The last thing she needed was a lecture on not disclosing her symptoms previously. Or him saying that they should leave HER behind to make it back to the village, while he and Naruto continued the pursuit.

However, he didn't say anything, other then calling a momentary halt to their pursuit. Until, of course, he was questioned by Naruto and explained that they needed Sakura to complete their mission.

Grateful for the break, but unwilling to voice it, she opened her pack and busied herself taking several antibiotics. She didn't have much else she could treat the poison with here and would have to fight it naturally and hope it didn't get much worse.

She closed her eyes, needing to concentrate her chakra to try to forcibly adjust her body temperature so she could conserve energy. The antibiotics would have to do their work without the aid of her raised body temperature. She needed to be at peak efficiency if they were going head to head with Oorchimaru.

Despite all hope, Sakura knew that even with the greatest infiltration scheme in the world, they would still probably have to go head-to-head with the snake, in order to reclaim Sasuke.

Yamato seemed to sense her need for quiet concentration and took Naruto to discuss their strategy, so she could have some privacy. Or so she thought at the time...

* * *

After the two men involved headed off to discuss their teamwork, his words would not leave with them. Even as Sakura's symptoms lessoned and she succeeded in getting her temperature down; her superior's words continued to echo in Sakura's mind.

"_... I can tell just by looking at you..." _

"DAMN-IT!" Inner Sakura screamed. "What WAS that creepy-eyed man going to tell me?!?"

Sakura sighed – not surprised as her Inner Self kept screaming and banging around that phrase. Now that her fever seemed to be ebbing, not even the stinging in her arm from the Kyuubi's poisonous chakra could distract her from the suggestively unfinished phrase.

She pulled out Sai's picturebook to keep her mind off of it, but was meeting with little success. She continued to wonder even as her eyes roamed the seemingly simplistic drawings become more and more complex...

Her logical self wanted to pass the remark over as nothing more than a casual misunderstood attempt to make her feel less helpless. Given the fact that not only had she been unable to help Naruto in **any** way – again – but she had also been rendered unconscious during battle, making her a liability - again.

What captain wouldn't try to boost her flagging confidence? She winced as Kakashi's half-moon eyes and crinkled mask representing his smile, flashed in her mind.

Why was she always someone that needed to be protected?!? Looked after, like a kid that never grew up?

Yamato... Kakashi... Sasuke... and even... Naruto...

So fiercely dedicated to protecting her. Even at the risk of endangering their missions.

"_...the __**truth **__is __**you**__..."_

Her Inner demon, just would NOT let it go. Even as her eyes settled on the blank middle pages of the book and continued on – watching the figures become less and less ornate.

She what? Cared about Naruto? Of course she did! He was her teammate – she had always cared about him in some way, she supposed.

But was that really all of it?

Sakura's eyes widened as she finally put together the last words of what Yamato was trying to say... "_the truth is you LOVE Naruto."_

Her shock in finishing the thought was less shocking than the fact that her inner Sakura did not immediately rise up to contradict her. The silence in her thought process was deafening, and finally allowed her to process the images in her lap.

Recognizing that the book she was looking at was more than it appeared, and could help them better understand Sai's mysterious background, she called her teammates over to her.

Pondering the images, Sakura missed the shadowed look of guilt that flitted across Naruto's face before he, in a rare sign of maturity, put what he wanted to say aside and focused on the pictures in her hands.

* * *

_The End_

I hope you enjoyed - this is my 3rd Naruto fanficiton, so I hope you will forgive (and feel free to point out) any misspelled names - of which I'm sure there are a few.

Any comments, especially constructive criticisms, are greatly appreciated.

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This IS a stand alone story… but, if you are at-all-interested, this can fit as a piece of a bigger story. "Panic to Passion" starring Sasuke and Sakura is posted. AND IF YOU ARE OPEN to three-way RELATIONSHIPS. The 'ending' of that story is already posted as "Reunited At Last", with a better description as to HOW this crazy idea of mine came about. But please BE WARNED the bigger story WILL focus on the relationship of team 7 – and I don't mean 'friendship' relationship. :D 

SuziKat


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